My Extraordinary Family

By: Ariel Ilagan

In year 2003, in a faraway land of Pasonanca; there lived a family with extra-ordinary gifts. Their house is located in a valley just below the hills where his grandfather has his farm of vegetables. It’s quite a scenery, a small “nipa hut” that has a big “wani tree” at the back with a small waterfalls on the hill, garden of flowers in front their yard and a small manmade fishpond nearby.

Lolo Tino has a strength like a lion, Lola Elda is such a good cook, my mom Lilyn has a third eye; she can predict what will happen in the future, my aunt Maryan can read minds and I Ariella can see other beings like “kapre: a giant”, “duende: elfs and dwarfs”;even souls of the dead.

People in our village don’t really know of our gifts so we can live normal lives. It just runs in the family; maybe it’s in our genes. All they know is Lola Elda is a great cook. She cooks food and sells it within the neighborhood and as always, sold out. Lolo Tino is a farmer. He plants fruits and vegetables. He can lift a big trunk of a tree by himself without hardship; in addition he has a green thumb. His fruits and vegetables grow fast and healthy with always a promising harvest! Hmmm… there’s nothing like having fresh vegetable as a one of our dish and fresh sweet fruits for dessert every single meal of the day.

Mama can predict if there’s something wrong that’s about to happen in the future and normally we can change the course of history in our favor so no one gets hurt. My aunt Maryan on the other hand is my BFF but I can’t lie to her. She knows what’s on my mind and heart without me even saying it.

You might be wondering who my father is… well, He is a doctor only not of this world. He is an Elf. His name is Cliff. His house is just a few steps from the back of our house. The passage is through a big “Wani: local variety of mango”, where from there you will enter into another dimension.

Elf’s looks like normal people only their ears are quite long. They’re as tall as most of us but their world is so wonderful; peaceful no crimes; for they are the guardians of the forest. There are three kinds of being in their world. The queen of the elf keeps the place in order with the help of her humble soldiers. The dwarfs are the small people who look after the needs of both elf’s and fairies who are assigned to make sure flowers bloom. During the day you see them like butterflies and at night they are the “Alitabtab” or firefly. They see to it that plants and flowers are taken cared off; that they grow and bear fruits.

I enjoy living in both worlds. Since I am half elf and half human I can see stay and mingle with beings in both worlds. Like my mom I can predict the future and still training to be like my dad a healer. I go to school in both worlds. My class as a human in Upper Pasonanca Elementary School starts at eight in the morning and finishes at three; then I go home and cross world into Elflandia to study healing with magic.

Time in Elflandia is different from our time. An hour here is three hours I their world, so I only need two hours of our earthly time to make up for a day’s class in theirs.

In our world I am just a normal six year old girl learning English, Mathematics, Science, Filipino, etc. In Elflandia I am what they would call an “Aribathia” a mystic being of two world; whom they believed if not trained properly can be helpful or destructive to both world.